Ghana ranks 6th in GSMA countries with tech hubs in Africa

Ghana placed 6th among eight leading African countries with more than 10 technology hubs on the continent, according to the latest GSMA info graphic report.

South Africa topped the list as the leading country with 54 tech hubs followed by Egypt 28, Kenya 27, Morocco 21, Nigeria 23, Ghana 16, Tunisia 15 and Uganda 12.

Ghana’s efforts to lead the data space in the West African sub-region in recent time through the commitments of various governments have witnessed massive infrastructural developments to accommodate the ever-growing demand for data in the country.

Although the recent GSMA report comes as no surprise to industry stakeholders, they believe that more can be done to improve and also encourage the setting up of more data centers in every part of the country.

With completion of the country’s Eastern Corridor Fibre Optic Backbone Infrastructure Project two years ago and the start of a new Western Corridor Fibre Optic Backbone industry, observers are optimistic about the springing up of more tech hubs in every region of the Ghana.

The report noted that with 314 active tech hubs in 94 cities scattered across 42 countries on the Africa continent only 5 countries including South Africa, Kenya. Nigeria, Egypt and Morocco have 50 percent of tech hubs in Africa. While 49 percent of tech hub s have partnership with non-telecom corporations, such as Microsoft, Google and Ashoka 13 percent of these tech hubs have partnerships with mobile operators, including Orange, MTN and Vodafone.

It indicates further that tech hubs facebook pages have more that 1.5 million followers and 600,000 followers on twitter.

As an emerging market, much attention is being drawn into Africa. With a population rapidly growing to 1.3 billion people, the need to connect and accelerate technology consumption grows day by day.